COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, November 10, 2014

QUESTION NO.7

QUESTION: Councillor C. O'Connor

To ask the Chief Executive to confirm details of any plans in place to deal with the effects of any bad weather events which occur during this winter period?

REPLY:

South Dublin County Council along with all local authorities have participated in the major emergency development programme and have been involved in managing the response to previous severe weather emergencies. The Council works with other agencies and works to regional programmes of training and exercises, based on regional risk assessments. .  Met Éireann circulate all local authorities with weather alerts over the period in question.  On foot of these, the general services staff, engineering staff and emergency services will be on stand-by to respond as necessary.

The arrangements for co-ordination of the front-line emergency services, which respond to assist citizens in need, and manage consequences at local level has been developed under the Framework for Major Emergency Management - it sets out common arrangements and structures for front-line public sector emergency management in Ireland. The Framework is based on the internationally recognised systems approach that, in essence, proposes an iterative cycle of continuous activity through five stages of emergency management:

• Hazard Identification/ Risk Assessment

• Mitigation

• Preparedness

• Response; and

• Recovery/ Review.

The provisions of the Framework were embedded in a two year development programme from 2006 – 2008 and through the experience of use in previous severe weather episodes in 2009, 2010/11 and 2014.

The Council’s Winter Maintenance Plan for 2014/2015 has been presented recently to the Area Committees, the purpose of this document is to identify the processes, procedures and control measures employed by South Dublin County Council to carry out Winter Maintenance including Road Weather Information Systems arrangements, Mapped Gritting Routes for the County and locations of salt barns and local salt bins.

South Dublin County Council continually monitors trash screens on rivers and streams and the pumping station network within the County to ensure that potential blockages are removed on an on going basis so as to mitigate the occurrence of local flooding. Some of the more notable locations are monitored by CCTV and the Pumping station network is equipped with telemetry that enables remote monitoring of the pumps, sump levels, flows, etc. Road gullies are regularly maintained and the Council has a well trained road maintenance crews and fleet of gritters to cope with the gritting of roads during snow and icy conditions.

The following additional links may be of assistance to residents and businesses in sourcing helpful information on adverse weather events: